SynthesisInternational health2026
Prevalence of Clostridioides difficile contamination in healthcare and non-healthcare environments: a global systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in International health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Clinical Outcomes and Risk Factors of Healthcare-Associated Infections in Surgical Wards: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Observational
- Clinical and molecular epidemiology ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Clostridioides difficile infection is a significant public health challenge. This study aimed to determine the overall prevalence of C. difficile contamination in healthcare and non-healthcare environments around the world from 2014 to 2024. In this systematic review, we searched five international databases. Random and fixed-effects models were used to estimate the pooled prevalence with 95% CIs. Among the 49 eligible studies and 20 779 environmental samples, 4507 samples were positive for C. difficile contamination. The overall prevalence was estimated as 0.26 (95% CI 0.23 to 0.28). The pooled prevalence according to the detection method was 0.26 (95% CI 0.21 to 0.32) and 0.62 (95% CI 0.50 to 0.74) using a culture test and PCR, respectively. The overall prevalence was 0.18 (95% CI 0.16 to 0.20) and 0.36 (95% CI 0.30 to 0.42) in the healthcare and non-healthcare environment, respectively. The prevalence in non-healthcare environments was 0.42, 0.38, 0.33 and 0.04 on farms, in public places, in the home and veterinary hospitals, respectively. The findings reveal a significant prevalence of C. difficile contamination across various environments worldwide. This alarming trend underscores the pressing need to prioritize environmental factors and implement effective disinfection strategies as part of comprehensive control programs aimed at tackling this disease.
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